This voluntary contribution by Spain will be used to finance a trade
policy course for Latin American countries which are members of the
Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), with the support of the
LAIA General Secretariat, to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the
second half of September 2001.

The
purpose of the course is to train regional officials who deal with
matters relating to the WTO and the international trading system. It
also seeks to develop a better understanding of the commitments
entered into by WTO Member countries in order to guide their positions
in regional or multilateral negotiations.

On
behalf of the Spanish Government, the Secretary-General for Foreign
Trade, Francisco Utrera Mora, today (Wednesday, 9 May) signed the
Memorandum of Understanding between Spain and the World Trade
Organization concerning this contribution.

The
WTO Director-General, Mike Moore, thanked Spain for its contribution
and stressed the vital importance of providing technical assistance to
developing countries at a time when the Organization's Member
countries are preparing for the forthcoming Ministerial Conference in
Qatar in November.

Ever
since its creation in 1995, the WTO has been collecting voluntary
contributions of this kind to help poorer countries participate
actively in the WTO and take advantage of the new opportunities in
international trade offered by the WTO Agreements. These funds are
administered by the WTO Secretariat.